Venezuela’s Search for Nuclear Power

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday that his government is carrying out initial studies into starting a nuclear energy program.

Chavez brought up the issue during a news conference, saying the South American country needs an atomic energy program.

“We’re taking on the project of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and they aren’t going to stop us,” Chavez said. “We need it and we’re carrying out the first studies.”

Chavez is a close ally of Iran and has defended the Iranian nuclear program, saying he is sure Iran is not making atomic weapons in spite of U.S. and European suspicions.

He has mentioned plans for an atomic energy program previously. It remains unclear how quickly he intends to pursue the program.

Chavez brought up the issue while referring to the case of a physicist and his wife in New Mexico who are accused by U.S. authorities of offering to help develop a nuclear weapon in contacts with an undercover U.S. agent posing as a representative of the Venezuelan government.

“They invent so many things,” he said. “The fact they say there is no evidence doesn’t mean they aren’t going to find it tomorrow, or fabricate it … that Venezuela is making an atomic bomb.”

He called that idea preposterous, saying: “Who in Venezuela could take on a project of that type? Who? We aren’t going to take it on.”

A scientist and his wife at one of America’s top national security institutions have been charged with trying to sell nuclear secrets to Venezuela.

The contractors who worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico were accused of giving data to an undercover FBI agent, posing as a Venezuelan government official.

Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, 75, a naturalized US citizen from Argentina, and Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 67, a US citizen, allegedly asked for a fee of $793,000 from the undercover spook in exchange for secrets worth “millions”. The secrets allegedly detailed how Venezuela could build a bomb and use a secret underground facility to enrich plutonium.

“This indictment is serious and should serve as a warning to anyone who would consider compromising our nation’s nuclear secrets for profit,” said Assistant Attorney General Kris. “I applaud the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who worked tirelessly to bring about this prosecution.”

There is an important question left with no answer, American agents said that there are no link between them with Chavez government, then why he insists that they’re not making atomic bomb. Who said they’re making bombs. Iranians have a slung which says if you pick up a stick, thief (cat) will start running away.